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Blinge: Own Fashion, Not Clothes

Every woman wants to erase that fine line between appreciating a dress and buying it. Every woman wants to feel like a celebrity. We did it for every woman.

-- Shikhar Khanna, Founder

We want women to be free in making their choices, especially clothes. Because clothes is what matters to them the most!

-- Shashwat Gopal, Founder

We are not disrupting an existing market. We are creating an absolutely new market!

-- Pooja Dubey, Founder

On May 2nd 2015, Shikhar Khanna, Shashwat Gopal and Pooja Dubey, co-founders of Blinge, met over a cup of coffee. As Shikhar says, “It was a Saturday and we were planning to go out. When Pooja opened her wardrobe to say, “I have nothing new to wear.”

As Shikhar recalls, ‘Since ages women have hated being stuck with the same clothes taking up precious wardrobe space and eating up their wallets. We are simply turning their need for variety to a tangible product. We want women to live, think and spend money freely. We are trying to correct what consumerism has done to the ecosystems and the economy. We envision a world where women have an empty closet and are happy about it!’

The online facility is posing a competition to the fashion apparel retail outlets as it is a substitute of brick and mortar stores. Also, there is a rising trend in people using e-commerce sites to order clothes and parallel to that the probability of retail outlets like Shopper Stop and Aditya Birla Group entering into the online world to expand their purview. With the launch of Blinge in August 2015, the founders faced a challenge: today the people really don’t know that there is an option of saving 80% of the money they spend on clothes get the same experience of wearing extraordinary dresses by renting the outfits online..........

Fashion Apparel Retail Industry in India

Current retail market in India is worth US$648.90 billion, wherein, the market has grown at an average of 16-18% to reach where it is today in 2015. Also, Indian Retail market is estimated to be US$1026.06 billion by 2017 and may further rise in the years to come.

Out of this, the total Apparel Retail Market is worth US$54.08 billion which is 8.33% of the current retail market in India and is growing at the rate of around 21%, where it is expected to be worth US$94.13 billion by 20172 (Exhibit I)...............

Growth Drivers in Online Retailing in Fashion Apparel Industry

GDP growth and subsequent growing online shopping industry, changing consumption pattern and favorable demographics, are some of the factors that drive the success of an online fashion apparel industry (Exhibit III)............

GDP & Online Shopping Industry Growth

Economic revival with the increasing GDP trend, the cost of living to income ratios and better income profile have added to the disposable incomes of the Indian consumers. As a consequence of this, the people have become more technology savvy and prefer to use online mode of shopping due to user friendly apps & websites and time saving (Exhibit IV)..............

Background

Blinge was incorporated under the parent company Panoptic Solutions Pvt. Ltd. on July 29th 2015 and it has been publically operational since August 21st 2015. Its co-founders are Shikhar Khanna an IIT Delhi graduate 2013 who worked as a Field Engineer for Schlumberger, Pooja Dubey an IIT Guwahati graduate 2013 who worked as a Software Developer for PayPal and Housing.com and Shashwat Gopal an IIT Bombay graduate 2013 who worked as a Marketing Manager for Housing and Field Engineer Schlumberger.............

Getting Started

Blinge has always been in ‘ideate, execute, learn and adapt’ phase irrespective of the presence or absence of the investors. The idea was pitched to the investors when they were confident that they had figured out the exact requirements on the demand side.

It started as India’s first fashion subscription model, and soon pivoted to being an on-demand fashion rental model. The philosophy before starting with the marketing plans for Blinge was connecting with the customers at three touch points that is, when there is a need-based browsing, random browsing and event-based browsing..............

Launch

In June 2015, Blinge had a mega-online launch (Annexure I) with disruptive marketing techniques. Blinge was launched via a gamification method used to create network effect. The idea was to incentivize the users and get them to spread the word. Firstly, they had launched a Trend board concept where, users who had the best fashion sense were up voted on Facebook (Annexure II) and people could see their ranks changing on the Blinge website and lastly, the other was a ‘Blinge-over-Bombay’ campaign to let people in all the areas of Bombay know that Blinge now exists in their region (Annexure III)...........

Challenge

As Shikhar said “We totally believe in the survival of the fittest and the concepts of mutation to improve and grow. We use data, a lot of data. We learn, we change, we implement and this is going to be a never-ending cycle at Blinge.” Blinge has introduced disruptive marketing techniques both online and offline..................

Assignment QuestionsI. Determine the competitive intensity and industry attractiveness of fashion industry.II. Discuss the value proposition offered by retail stores and Blinge. Also, compare these value propositions offered by both of these channels.III. ...........

Exhibits

Exhibit I: Apparel Retail Industry

Exhibit II: Income Class

Exhibit III: Growth Drivers

Exhibit IV: Growing GDP and Online Shopping Industry

Exhibit V: Competitors’ Analysis

Exhibit VI: Economics Behind the Rentals

Teaching Note Preview

Blinge: Own Fashion, Not Clothes

Synopsis

Mumbai is known to be the heart of Bollywood film industry, where every individual, be of any age group, want to look trendy, stylish and has a dream to wear designer clothes. Blinge made this dream of those thousands of people come true in budget. This case study is about a Mumbai-based start-up company Blinge.com that has come up with an innovative idea of renting the designer clothes online.

The online facility is posing a competition to the fashion apparel retail outlets, as it is a substitute of these brick-and-mortar stores. Also, there is a rising trend in people using various e-commerce sites to order clothes and parallel to this there is a probability of retail outlets like Shopper Stop and Aditya Birla Group entering into the online world to expand their purview. Considering all these facts, Blinge came up with the facility wherein, the women can rent clothes instead of buying them.

However, great ideas come with great challenges. With the launch of Blinge in August 2015, the founders faced a challenge: today the people really don’t know that there is an option of saving 80% of the money they spend on clothes get the same experience of wearing extraordinary dresses by renting the outfits online.

Pedagogical Objectives

The objectives of the case study are:

• To understand the New Product Development Model. The case study will explore the company and its operation, origination of the idea, the process of design, development and final launch of the services by the company

• To discuss the challenges that the company is currently facing in the market

• To explore options for scaling up

Case Positioning and Setting

This case study can be used in MBA, Executive MBA or Executive Development Programs, for course(s) related to Product Development and Management.

II. Discuss the value proposition offered by retail stores and Blinge. Also, compare these value propositions offered by both of these channels.

III. What could be the other growth drivers in online retailing in fashion apparel industry other than those mentioned in the case?

IV. ...........

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Abstract

This case study is meant to introduce the students/participants to the concept of new product development process. Presented through Blinge, a Mumbai based start-up, this case study explores the various service development stages for a service whose concept is still new in an economy like India. Mumbai is known as the heart of Bollywood (Hindi language) film industry, where every individual, be of any age group, want to look trendy and stylish and have a dream to wear designer clothes. Blinge made this dream of those thousands of people come true within their budget by providing a platform wherein, the users can rent clothes for every occasion at a price much less than what they would have spent on buying a new outfit. However, great ideas come with great challenges. With the launch of Blinge in August 2015, the founders faced a challenge: people really don't know that there is an option of saving 80% of the money they spend on clothes to get the same experience of wearing extraordinary dresses by renting the outfits online.

Pedagogical Objectives

To understand the New Product Development Model. The case study will explore the company and its operation, origination of the idea, the process of design, development and final launch of the services by the company

To discuss the challenges that the company is currently facing in the market

To explore options for scaling up

Case Positioning and Setting

This case study can be used in MBA, Executive MBA or Executive Development Programs, for course(s) related to Product Development and Management.

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